I think there was a lot to like with this one for me and I will probably still continue the series. I struggle with fantasy audiobooks at times but this one kept me pretty engaged. However I think I will enjoy it much more with a physical copy.

The story itself was pretty straightforward medieval fantasy imo. At times I felt like Fitz had a lot more help than people were making it sound, especially given discourse for this book makes it seem like he gets kicked while he's down. I thought Burrich, Verity, his dogs, Patience, Molly, etc were all good friends/allies. All the same much of this book takes place while Fitz is pretty young so maybe the context of the bad things happening are happening to a child make it worse. All the same, the world and the characters are interesting and I'm excited to read more

I should not have taken such a long break between this and edition 10 but oh well. Much I still don't understand about what Griffith is planning. I enjoy spending time with our gang on the ship.

Reaction to end: wow some sort of otherworldly being has arrived near a huge collection of people apparently according to Griffiths plan. What could go wrong?

This one was tough to get into. Much tougher than Grapes for me. I'm still not sure what to make of this story and what it means. And at times I was lost when it came to the motivations of the characters.

But I keep thinking I'm just missing some aspect or background experience that ties everything together because even without it I felt something. Though some aspects of the characters can be read as really outdated, I think they can be viewed entirely differently from their original intentions through a modern lens.

Lee specifically was great. Easily my favorite character in the whole book. By the end, I felt like someday a retelling of this story from Lee's perspective would be excellent. His and Adam's relationship as just "great friends" is not all that there is there, I'm sure of it. They loved each other and I want to know how Lee might have wrestled with that.